Gardens of England – 4 July 2010

Inspired by our wonderful garden experience last Sunday (and also the reminder of Great Dixter garden yesterday), we set out to have a gardens day, before the roses are past their best.

Hever Castle is a favourite place to visit, but we have never seen their rose garden in bloom, so we started the day there. The garden was a picture.

Then on to Riverhill Gardens for lunch. A very peaceful spot, but we decided we should come back and visit again when the rhododendrons are out.


Nearby is Squerryes Court, which we had seen in the BBC production of Emma, last year. This garden is terrific, and at this property we also visited the house as well. The production took place in most of the house, and photos of the filming helped us remember where the scenes were shot.

Following Squerryes, we called in at Lullington Castle, to see how the 'World Garden' had progressed since we visited in 2007. Everything looked so much bigger, although the severe winter had damaged a lot of plants. It all still looks great, and this time they have also developed two plastic houses, the one we liked best was a large collection of stunning cacti.

Our original goal for the day was a visit to Cobham Hall, a girl's school in a stately home, which opens to the public in school holidays. It was fun to have a delicious cream tea in the ornate banqueting room.

The informative tour guide regaled us with interesting family history, from the days when the Tudor house was built to 1956 when the house was given to the state in lieu of death duties. A sad end to a proud family tradition.

The most interesting piece of trivia was to learn of the family connection to the history of 'The Ashes'. These were given to the 8th Earl by the Australian ladies associated with the cricket tour in 1883, when the 8th Earl was the captain of the English team. He kept The Ashes on the mantelpiece until his death, when they were given to the MCC, and are now awarded as the trophy to the winning team in the bi-annual English/Australian cricket series.

Lambeth Palace Library – 3 July 2010

The Lambeth Palace Library is celebrating its 400 year anniversary, with a display of some of its most famous treasures.




Although the display is contained in just one large room, it takes an hour to cover the room with the audio tour. There was a great variety of books and manuscripts, from a copy of the Guttenburg Bible, to Mary Queen of Scots death warrant. The book we found most fascinating was a first edition of Foxe's Actes and Monuments of the Church, more commonly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, opened at the page showing the illustration of Bishop Hooper being burnt at the stake. As Bishop Hooper is in the family tree it was a rather fortuitous coincidence.

Next door is the Garden Museum, who were giving a discounted entry to ticket holders from the Library exhibition. The Museum is small, but has a nice garden, where they serve most excellent vegetarian salads. The current exhibition features the gardens of Great Dixter, and Christopher Lloyd, who developed them. As we have visited these wonderful gardens twice (in different seasons), we found this most interesting.

Following lunch, we went back to the library for two of their lectures. The first featured a book about the Danse Macbre. We had been introduced to this in Slovenia, when we visited the wonderful painted church there. The speaker featured this church in his talk. The second lecture was a most illuminating discussion on the background to several witch and anti-exorcism tracts in the Library collection.

A pleasant walk along the Thames took us back to the underground.

From Suffolk country grandeur, to Constable Country – 27 June 2010

Starting at Stratford St Mary, we enjoyed meandering through delightful country towns, many associated with John Constable. He caught the stage coach outside The Swan in Stratford St Mary, to unsuccessfully try and interest the London public in his paintings.

Next was Nayland, where we saw one of only three religious works by Constable, and this is the only one to still be in the location it was painted for.

Kersey is a real 'chocolate-box' village. The ford, which is still in use, is a must for photos. We carried on until Chelmsford, where we left the route for a detour to Helmingham Hall Gardens. These gardens are wonderful, and unlike yesterday's, these definitely are in our top five favourite gardens list! The moated Tudor house is a draw-card in itself, even though it is not open to the public. The main gardens are also moated (possibly a Saxon moat), and an absolute delight to visit. The roses were stunning, and I would recommend a visit in June, to catch the gardens at their best. There is also a lovely formal garden behind the very tempting 'Old Stables' tearooms.



Back on the AA route, we went through the colourful town of Hadleigh to East Bergholt, where Constable was born. The church there has the distinction of not having a church spire. The tower was started by Cardinal Wolsey, but never finished, and the bells still hang in a temporary wooden enclosure.

Flatford is just around the corner, and the National Trust have preserved Willy Lott's cottage and the boat building dry-dock, and it is possible to walk around the area, looking at the various sites where Constable did some of his most famous paintings. The afternoon was so warm, we did a boat trip from in front of Bridge Cottage, the NT display centre. This took us along the River Stour, which featured in many of his paintings, to the Fen Bridge where Constable crossed the river twice a day going to and from school in Dedham.

The last stop of the Day was Dedham to visit the church, found in 26 of Constable's paintings, and which also has one of his three religious paintings on the wall. Although this was originally painted for the church in Mannington, it was displayed here when that building was demolished with the intent that at least one of Constable's religious paintings should be on show in Constable Country.

Dorneywood – 26 June 2010

When the new government were voted in, we were reminded that the National Trust holds a few open days at Dorneywood, the country home usually allocated to the Chancellor. We had visions of a stunning country pile, surrounded by manicured colourful gardens, so took Andrew and Hilary for a drive in Clara to see the gardens.

The good part was that Clara performed well and we reached the gardens in good time for afternoon tea in the barn, the sad news was that we have seen many better English gardens, and this one won't make the list of top gardens in the UK. But the drive there is beautiful, through the lovely Chiltern woodland of Burnham Beeches.

On the way home we stopped for a picnic tea at Burnham Beeches, followed by a delicious desert and coffee at the Fox and Pheasant.

Clara did find the heat too much on the way home, and refused to start again in Denham, until she managed to cool off. But as Denham is a very pleasant place to be stuck in, no one minded.

A Half Marathon in Five Hours – 20 June 2010

A very early start got us to Stansted Airport by 6.15am, to drop Janine off for a flight to Spain. Rather than return home, we decided to do a ten mile walk not far from the airport, starting in the attractive village of Radwinter.

The walk was in our 2002 edition of 'Country Walking', but we found a few changes had occurred in the countryside in the intervening eight years, as some of the tracks were so badly maintained, that they were impassible. So, as a result of this and some very inadequate instructions at two places which meant we lost our way a few times, our ten mile walk turned into at least a thirteen mile walk.


Half way round was the attractive village of Ashdon, where unfortunately, we were too early for the pub to be open. But the walking instructions intrigued us by describing the Cromwell Room in the pub, where it was discovered the walls were covered in drawings by Royalist prisoners held by Cromwell during the Civil War; and the blackboard outside tempted us to return, and reward ourselves after our long and challenging walk, with a Sunday Roast.

We would heartily recommend a Sunday Roast at the 400 year old Rose and Crown, and would say it was the best Sunday roast we have had at a pub in this country. The beef was still slightly pink, the gravy was home-made and not full of bisto – in fact “home cooked” sums up the whole meal, served with a dish of horse-radish sauce. In the huge side-dish of perfectly cooked veges were peas, fresh beans, cabbage, carrot, boiled potatoes as well as a side of cauliflower cheese. Alongside the roast beef was a freshly cooked yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and parsnip. A truly delicious dinner which we did justice to, before returning home in time for the NZ vs Italy Football Match at 3pm - an excellent end to our day.

Pilgrimage – 19 June 2010

Saturday was the only chance to take Janine out for her first excursion in Clara.

The weather was coolish, but that suits Clara perfectly. We decided to drive to Abingdon, the town were the MG factory was situated, and re-run the test drive, which Clara would have originally been taken on.

When we reached the town centre, we had to stop and watch the very English scene taking place. This was the annual election day for the Mayor of Ock Street. To start the proceedings, the town's Morris dancers were in full swing. We've seen Morris dancers before, and it's always entertaining to watch. But Abingdon also invited the Britannia Coco-nut Dancers, a legacy from pirate days in Cornwall, hence the blackened faces, and costumes.

The test drive was a triangular route out of Abingdon, with a bumpy edge to one side originally, used to test suspension rattles, and a smooth straight for wheel balance. Clara would have last done this 60 years ago!

A stop at Ewelme to show Janine the Almshouses and a delicious late lunch at The Fox & Hounds just before Turville, rounded off a pleasant drive.

Out and about near Nairobi – 12 June 2010

Our final day in Nairobi was spent with a driver taking us to the Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Centre. Even after seeing the real animals in the wild, this was a different look at these animals.

The baby elephants have been rescued from different situations, and are raised here until they are able to be released back into the wild. The keepers sleep with the babies, feed them every 3 hours, night and day, from large elephant sized bottles, help them throw dust over themselves. In fact, they teach the baby elephants everything they would normally learn from their mothers.

The Giraffe Centre was a close up look at five giraffes. A tall viewing platform allows visitors to feed the giraffes with animal pellets. The sight of a slobbering giraffe up close, is a bit daunting, but in the informative lecture given in the Centre, we learnt that giraffe saliva it a very effective antiseptic and antibiotic. So there is no danger posed to those hardy souls who opt to feed the giraffes mouth to mouth!! However reassured, we still washed our hands after the giraffes had slobbered over them.

We then asked the driver to take us to a shopping centre, to visit their Saturday market. It's not a large market, but we all found items that we wanted to purchase.

The real highlight of the day was dinner at the Carnivore Restaurant This is rated in the guide book we had, as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. It was certainly a fun experience. A set price covers a three course meal, the feature of which is the main course, where a constant round of waiters offer different meats cooked on the open circular fire. The meats ranged from lamb, pork, chicken and beef to crocodile, camel and ostrich meatballs. The meat is brought to the table on swords or skewers and carved directly onto your plate. The salad for seven of us was the size of a salad for one at a normal restaurant. This is definitely not a place for vegetarians, but for the carnivores, it's a really fun experience.